COMMENTARY – A recent Patriot Ledger article about a proposed Weymouth town ordinance I sponsored has triggered hysterics among cat lovers (“Weymouth resident wants stricter cat rules,” June 19).It’s time for cooler heads and the facts to prevail.

I, too, love cats and want them – and their human families – to be safe.

That is why I proposed an ordinance, similar to one in Quincy, which would require cat owners to take responsibility for their pets by containing them. The proposal does not mandate leashing them, although that is an option some owners choose. It simply requires keeping cats indoors or in a secure outdoor enclosure.

That this common sense law would lead to the “herding and summary killing” of free-roaming cats as some have claimed is rhetoric designed to inflame and distract. It simply is not true. Under the terms of this ordinance, the animal control officer must make a concerted effort to locate the cat’s owner. People who care about their cats would be searching too. The first call typically is to animal control.

Free-roaming cats are at both ends of the food chain. They kill smaller mammals and birds and are killed, often in horrific ways, by larger predators, including disturbed people. They ingest toxins and are hit by cars. On my block alone, I’ve seen the heartbreaking sight of three owned, collared cats, dead by the side of the road.

Unfixed, free-roaming cats contribute to the overpopulation problem that results in millions of healthy cats euthanized each year for want of a home. They also are at greater risk for diseases like feline leukemia. And they are far more likely than indoor cats to contract toxoplasmosis, a potentially lethal disease they can transmit to humans.

Yet many people who wouldn’t dream of allowing their dogs to wander far and wide – because that is illegal – simply open the door to a dangerous world for their cats.

When I was growing up some 45 years ago, dogs roamed at will. The notion of containing them seemed as crazy to dog owners then as the notion of containing cats seems to some owners now.

Fact is, municipalities across the country have enacted indoor-cat ordinances with good results.

Veterinary behaviorists say cats can be perfectly happy indoors-only if the owner provides an enriched environment, attention and play. In fact, doing so strengthens the human-animal bond.

In domesticating dogs and cats, we have made them dependent on us for their well-being.

It took a law for dog owners to assume responsibility for the safety of their pets. It’s time for cat owners to assume equal responsibility.

Lorraine Nicotera lives in Weymouth. She proposed a revision to the town ordinance that would require cat owners to to keep their pets leashed or otherwise under their control.